Okomu, Presco, others cause market’s 50,000 points cross

Nigeria’s stock market benchmark performance index crossed 50,000 points on Wednesday May 4, the first trading day of the week after the public holiday as investors bought shares of Okomu Oil Palm Plc, Presco Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, and Eterna Plc. The market’s positive return year-to-date (YtD) has increased to 17.35percent.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation increased from preceding day’s lows of 49,638.94 points and N26.761trillion respectively to 50,126.41 points and N27.023trillion, up by 0.98percent and N262billion.

Okomu Oil Palm led the league of advancers after its share price moved up from N147 to N161.70, up N14.70 or 10percent, followed by Presco which increased from N143.40 to N157.70, adding N14.30 or 9.97percent.

Wema Bank also rose from N3.50 to N3.85, up by 35kobo or 10percent, Nigerian Breweries increased from N57.10 to N62.80, adding N5.70 or 9.98percent, while Eterna Plc rose from a low of N6.02 to N6.62, adding 60kobo or 9.97percent.

Read also: Stocks see slight gain of N2bn as positive sentiment fades

“We expect the positive sentiment that has prevailed in the market in the last couple of weeks to persist. In our opinion, the positive corporate performance in first-quarter (Q1) 2022 should spur buying interest. Furthermore, tickers across sectors still have significant upside, which could stimulate bargain hunting activities,” Lagos-based Meristem research analysts said.

Though, the analysts noted a possibility of profit taking on tickers that have gained appreciably during the past weeks, especially on bellwether stocks, they however think that the positive factors would be dominant.

“Hence, we expect the market to close in the positive region this week,” Meristem research analysts added.

In 7,251 deals, investors exchanged 669,299,199 units valued at N5.988billion. Union Bank, Transcorp, AIICO, Chams, and Access Holdings were most traded stocks on Wednesday.